Comparison of the ingestion of fibre rich foods in different countries

Introduction: The ingestion of fruits, vegetables and cereals, especially whole grain, is associated with a healthy lifestyle and has been recognized as having multiple health benefits, associated, among others, to the ingestion of adequate amounts of dietary fibre. Objective: The aim of this work was to evaluate some eating habits related to fibre rich foods in six different countries: Argentina, Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Portugal and Romania. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out by means of questionnaire survey applied to a sample of 4905 participants, all over the age of 18 years old. The preparation and application of the questionnaire followed the necessary ethical guidelines and the treatment was made by SPSS. Results: The results showed that for the global sample was observed a low ingestion of salads and vegetables (78.2%), being this particularly problematic for Croatia (86.6%). Regarding the consumption of fruits, for the whole sample the great majority also showed a low consumption (92.3%), and for Latvian participants the percentage is very much expressive (98.3%). As for the consumption of whole cereals, most participants also showed a low consumption, either for the global sample (72.6%) or in the different countries, and particularly for Latvia (90.0%). Some eating habits were also studied and it was observed that for the whole sample 71.9% showed a low frequency of meals ate out of home, while 88.6% revealed acceptable frequency of eating fast food, i.e, only once or twice a week. Conclusions: The results indicated that in the countries at study the ingestion of foods rich in dietary fibre is very low, and therefore it is necessary to implement strategies to increase the consumption of such foods.